Sometimes its the little things that make me wanna lose it!!

[female12233]

Let me start by saying that every day that I work I go into each of my patients room and greet them for the day and introduce myself and that i'm there nurse, than I write it on the dry erase board in all of there room along with my phone's number for the day so that im available if needed. So than why is it that I've been called transport or even their tech. I dont think anything is wrong with either of these positions and maybe its just a me thing but I worked my butt off for that RN behind my name and I dang well nurse recignition of it! First of all I dont understand at all how I could be considered someone from transport when I worked with the patient all day passing meds and doing any needed procedures with that pt. But mainly what ticked me off to know end is when I went into one of my patients rooms had just provided her discarge teaching when she received a phone call as I was by this point removing her IV when I hear her say to her ride "oh I'll be done in just a minute, Im just wait for the tech here to finish and then I have to see my real nurse." I was fumming to say the least but i delt with it and just finished the task at hand, discharged her and havn't seen her since. I swear I could have been jumping up and down yelling hey hey its me, me I'm your nurse ahh hello didnt you think it wierd that i was giving you meds, pulled your ng and Iv and was giving you d/c teaching????????????? for petes sake what does it take to get some credit??? I feel as though i will forever be

[jmgrn65, RN]

I would have said I am your real nurse.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

It's hard for patients to sort out who is who, since nurses don't have a distinctive uniform. They really don't know much about the workings of the hospital system and get confused. Try not to take it personally.

[emnicams]

hmm, I haven't really run into this. I have had a few patients ask if I'm an RN or LPN, even though my badge has a huge red "RN" on it and I always put RN after my name on the dry-erase board. And I've had patients say I look too young to be an RN (lol). But I've never been confused for anything other than a nurse.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

A couple thoughts, do you look young? If you look like you're "too young to be a nurse" (in your pt's eyes), then maybe they just figure you're the NA or PCT. I am young/look young, but I never have a problem with pt's knowing I'm their nurse. I am very assertive, make sure they know I'm the one giving meds, calling dr, etc.

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

i would have said "i am your real nurse."

i get flack for being an LPN from patients, and have been asked where the "real nurse" was. oh well. i can't fault them because that is a divide even within the profession. i will never forget the day a patient asked me if LPN stood for "let's pretend nurse"... pretty young guy too, and i couldn't believe how rude he was. i very calmly told him when he was done insulting my license that i worked very hard for he would get his meds. he said he didn't know it was a big deal and that he was sorry.... but jeez, lol.

i've also been called the CNA, the tech, the secretary, the phlebotomist. i guess when you see so many people in and out of your room it gets confusing, esp when you are sick and seeing new faces all the time from nursing staff, doctors, dietary, transport, lab, etc....

[leslie :-D]

don't feel bad, ladies.

one time i had a pt who asked me if i had ever been a psych pt at XXX hospital.

leslie

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

don't feel bad, ladies.

one time i had a pt who asked me if i had ever been a psych pt at XXX hospital.

leslie

Leslie, that's hysterical!

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

don't feel bad, ladies.

one time i had a pt who asked me if i had ever been a psych pt at XXX hospital.

leslie

lol, leslie.....

when i was a teenager, i was hospitalized for anorexia/drug addiction and was such a terror to my nurses. when i started working at my old hospital, there was this male nurse there that kept eyeballing me. one day he was like "hey, do i know you from somewhere?" and of course i knew where i knew him from.... but i said "no."

so the more we worked together, i knew he was going to figure it out eventually.

he was my nurse in the psych hospital. we laughed about it after i finally admitted to him where i knew him from. but i was mortified.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

It's hard for patients to sort out who is who, since nurses don't have a distinctive uniform. They really don't know much about the workings of the hospital system and get confused. Try not to take it personally.

This is very true. I especially love it when the patient, referring to the CNA, says "The other nurse said.....".

[CathyLew]

"It's hard for patients to sort out who is who, since nurses don't have a distinctive uniform. They really don't know much about the workings of the hospital system and get confused. Try not to take it personally"

I do agree with this. In our hospital, almost everyone wears scrubs. We do Med/Surg and Ped on my old floor... so people wear bright colored and cartoon scrubs. Since it is less of a visial threat to the kids. But the Lab also wear scrubs... and RAD techs... and even the housekeeping staff. There isn't a difference in the uniform of the CNA, LPN, RN or Supervisor. I have made laminated badges that stick out about 1 1/2 inche below our name badges that say RN LPN, UC, CNA to try to get a bigger visual out there for the seeing impared patients. But still, you can be in a room doing something with a patient, and they ask you when you are done to send in a nurse.

[MKieffer]

I would have "reorientated" that "I am your nurse, and yes I will transport you; if you would like." Maybe they don't know the difference between all the employees- one can ony know what goes through their brains.